What I learned in my 2nd month of running

It’s the last day of November, outside temperature is about 1 degrees Celsius and it’s raining something that looks like half-frozen rain. There’s also a lot of snow on sidewalks, even though most of the roads and sidewalks are clean enough to support running. This means that I have no excuse not to go out and do my daily workout.

That’s probably the greatest lesson of this month, here in Ljubljana, there’s almost no weather condition that would prevent you from running. Sure, it’s not 18C where you can run in t-shirt, but on the other hand, there is no real excuse for not adding another layer of clothes and go running. It’s a bit terrifying at first, running in rain, after dark or even in snow, but you quickly learn that it’s not much different from run on a warm day. It’s still just you and the road and the poetic feeling of freedom and good kind of tiredness that comes afterward.

Some statistics

As you can see in the embedded image, I didn’t miss a single running day, make it a total of 22 runs, over 11 and half hours and 113 kilometers. This is twice the amout of kilometers over previous month.

Overall, I’m happy with results of running as I managed to upgrade my runs from 3-4km in the beginning to about 5km per run in the end.

I’ve also started running to top of Rožnik on weekends, which has about 150m of altitude difference. The basic idea to upgrade the mid-week runs on flat terrain.

Other random observation

• I probably have most of equipment now and the whole exercise is pretty cheap. I just bought extra running pants for winter, otherwise I don’t feel any special need for winter equipment yet.
• Rain is no problem for my current running shoes, you just have to watch a bit where you run. No need for special ones here also.
• Running is now fully part of my daily routine. I just budget time for it on dedicated days and go for a run.
• I’ve discovered a  smoothie half an hour before run gives you lots of great energy.
• Running in pair is not that bad actually, but it requires almost too much coordination.
• I feel incredibly good. It’s like getting a bit fit totally changed my attitude towards everything.
• I’m slowly growing enough confidence that I’d be willing to try a group run with a larger group of more experience runners.
• Snow running is pretty fun. I’d consider getting better running shoes and make it a dedicated day for a bit more intensive exercise.

Overall, running is really fun and I’m happy that I decided to stick with it.

Other posts on this blog about running in last month:

• What I learned after 1st month of running
• Is Nike Apple of running?
• iPod Nano chromatic 4th gen Nike+ reset problem
• Be a copycat! – Sociology tip #3
• Winter running with Rocky IV